McNally v. Goodenough

92 N.W.2d 890, 5 Wis. 2d 293
CourtWisconsin Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 5, 1958
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 92 N.W.2d 890 (McNally v. Goodenough) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wisconsin Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
McNally v. Goodenough, 92 N.W.2d 890, 5 Wis. 2d 293 (Wis. 1958).

Opinions

Wingert, J.

The judgment of dismissal will be affirmed. Owner not liable. Dr. Pember, the owner of the building, had leased all portions here involved to the Goodenoughs, and retained no control or possession thereof. Hence his liability under the safe-place statute was limited to structural defects.

The vestibule at the head of the basement stairs was provided with an electric light which was in operating condition, but it was turned off at the time of the accident. Any obligation to keep the light turned on rested solely upon the tenants, and the owner cannot be held liable for their failure in that respect. Kinney v. Luebkeman, 214 Wis. 1, 4, 5, 252 N. W. 282.

[300]*300By the same token, the owner is not responsible for the tenants’ failure to keep the door to the basement steps closed, or to have a warning sign on or near the door.

The absence of a handrail on the upper part of the steps may have been a structural defect attributable to the landlord, but on the facts of this case it was not a contributing cause of the injury. Plaintiff, moving ahead in the dark, stepped off the top step without knowing there was a stairway, and would not have seen or used the rail if one had been there. He admitted he could not see anything. The suggestion that he might have grasped a proper rail blindly during his fall and thereby reduced his injuries is too speculative. Schoonmaker v. Kaltenbach, 236 Wis. 138, 294 N. W. 794.

Tenants not liable under safe-place statute. The part of the building occupied by the Goodenoughs was a place of employment. Therefore they were required by sec. 101.06, Stats., to “furnish a place of employment which shall be safe for employees therein and for frequenters thereof” and to “do every other thing reasonably necessary to protect the . . . safety, ... of such employees and frequenters.”

The term “frequenter” includes every person, other than an employee, who is on the premises under circumstances which render him other than a trespasser (sec. 101.01 (5), Stats.). An employee of an independent contractor, doing work on the building, is a frequenter of that part of the premises where his work reasonably takes him. Frankovis v. Klug & Smith Co. 275 Wis. 156, 161, 81 N. W. (2d) 495. Therefore when plaintiff was working on the roof he was within the protection of the statute.

On the other hand, the safe-place statute does not protect one who is merely a trespasser. Harder v. Maloney, 250 Wis. 233, 26 N. W. (2d) 830; Newell v. Schultz Brothers Co. 239 Wis. 415, 421, 1 N. W. (2d) 769.

We need not determine whether the facts might warrant a finding that plaintiff was a frequenter when he was walking [301]*301on the direct route from the roof through the back door to the front of the store to consult Mr. Goodenough, and on the direct way back to the alley and roof. For present purposes we may assume that he was then a frequenter, on the theory that he reasonably took that route as an incident to the repair job requested by Goodenough.

When plaintiff deviated from the direct path and turned into the vestibule at the head ■ of the stairs he became a trespasser as a matter of law and he was a trespasser when hurt on the stairway. On no theory did plaintiff have any right to be in the vestibule or to use the stairway. Nothing connected with his work required or justified his presence there. He had no privilege to be there created by the Goodenoughs’ consent or otherwise, and hence was a trespasser. Restatement, 2 Torts, p. 891, sec. 329. The fact that he did not intend to use the stairway, but was confused and did so by mistake, does not prevent its being a trespass. See Grossenbach v. Devonshire Realty Co. 218 Wis. 633, 635, 261 N. W. 742.

The case just cited is very similar to the one at bar and controls it. There the plaintiff, a resident in an apartment house, went to the basement where thére was a locker room and a laundry for the use of the tenants. She was unfamiliar with the basement, and entered the boiler room, mistaking it for the locker room. The room was dark; while feeling for a light switch plaintiff stepped off the platform at the entrance of the boiler room and was injured. Reversing a judgment of the circuit court, this court held that plaintiff was a trespasser in the boiler room as a matter of law, since tenants were not invited into that room either expressly or by implication although free to use the other rooms and the passageways (p. 638).

Other cases illustrating the same principle, but not so close to the instant case on the facts, are Klemens v. Morrow Milling Co. 171 Wis. 614, 177 N. W. 903; Newell v. [302]*302Schultz Brothers Co. 239 Wis. 415, 1 N. W. (2d) 769; and Ryan v. O’Hara, 241 Wis. 389, 6 N. W. (2d) 209.

In Grossenbach it was held immaterial that a previous tenant had gone into the boiler room every two weeks to empty a vacuum cleaner, while there had met the janitor, and was never told to stay out, as that practice was not so frequent and well established as to raise an inference of acquiescence (218 Wis. at p. 639).

It is suggested that on plaintiff’s version of the facts, which we must accept for present purposes, the transverse hallway was so dark that a jury could find it unsafe while the door was open to the dark vestibule leading to the basement stairway; 1 and that while in the hallway plaintiff was a frequenter, not a trespasser. Even on that hypothesis, we think that plaintiffs negligence in proceeding as he did was at least equal as a matter of law to that of the Goodenoughs in failing to have the hallway better lit and the door shut, and thus defeats recovery. Plaintiff had just been through the hallway, its darkness was apparent, and, if as great as he claims, it called upon him to proceed with great care. Instead, walking at a fast pace into the hallway, he took no pains at all to retrace his previous steps, but went ahead blindly in the opposite direction into an unfamiliar area where he said he could see nothing. In essence this aspect of the case is like Klein v. Montgomery Ward & Co. 263 Wis. 317, 57 N. W. (2d) 188. In unfamiliar buildings as well as on highways, ■one whose vision is completely obscured must proceed cautiously. Cf., Heine v. Oswald Jaeger Baking Co. 275 Wis. 26, 29, 80 N. W. (2d) 791, and cases cited.

Tenants not liable for common-law negligence. It remains to consider whether the facts taken in the light most favorable [303]*303to plaintiff might warrant a finding that the Goodenoughs were negligent in permitting him to go back into the transverse hallway without warning him of the risk of making a left turn instead of a right turn and falling into the dark stairway, and in not turning on the light in that area; and that their negligence was greater than that of plaintiff.

It is undisputed that the Goodenoughs’ clerk temporarily in charge of the store knew that plaintiff was there and had come from the rear, and it would be a permissible inference that she knew he was about to return the same way. She neither informed him that the area was forbidden to outsiders, nor gave him any warning of the stairway, nor turned on the light. Assuming that plaintiff was a frequenter on his visit to the store, and was a business visitor within the terminology of the Restatement of the Law of Torts,1 then the following rule would apply:

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

DeEtte Fankhauser v. Curtis D. Hestad
Court of Appeals of Wisconsin, 2020
Hofflander v. St. Catherine's Hospital, Inc.
2003 WI 77 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 2003)
Monsivais v. Winzenried
508 N.W.2d 620 (Court of Appeals of Wisconsin, 1993)
Brunette v. Employers Mutual Liability Insurance Co.
320 N.W.2d 43 (Court of Appeals of Wisconsin, 1982)
Aetna Casualty & Surety Co. v. Becker Construction Co.
284 N.W.2d 621 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1979)
Terpstra v. Soiltest, Inc.
218 N.W.2d 129 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1974)
Hastreiter v. Karau Buildings, Inc.
205 N.W.2d 162 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1973)
Young v. Anaconda American Brass Co.
168 N.W.2d 112 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1969)
West Side Bank v. Marine National Exchange Bank
155 N.W.2d 587 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1968)
Midthun v. Morgan
150 N.W.2d 367 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1967)
Leszczynski v. Surges
141 N.W.2d 261 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1966)
Dottai v. Altenbach
120 N.W.2d 41 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1963)
Mustas v. INLAND CONSTRUCTION, INC.
19 Wis. 2d 194 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1963)
Presser v. Siesel Construction Co.
119 N.W.2d 405 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1963)
Townsend v. Milwaukee Insurance
113 N.W.2d 126 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1962)
McChain v. City of Fond Du Lac
96 N.W.2d 607 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1959)
Sadler v. Western Moulding Co.
94 N.W.2d 602 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1959)
McNally v. Goodenough
92 N.W.2d 890 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1958)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
92 N.W.2d 890, 5 Wis. 2d 293, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mcnally-v-goodenough-wis-1958.